Begun, A New Era Has: My review on The Force Awakens

I predicted I would love the movie yesterday and not be able to say anything but great things about it. While I did love and like it a lot, it took a while for me to get into it. Longer than I thought and I did find some parts that did not sit well with me.

The Force Awakens reminded me of a new pair of shoes. It was a little uncomfortable at first, something different that I needed to get used to. But once I had worn it for a significant amount of time, the shoes melded to my feet and I love them. It tooke a while for me to accept that this movie was the beginning of a new era in Star Wars: new characters, ships, and storylines to get used to.

I felt like the first 2/3 of the movies was story building – a lot of it. To the point that sometimes I felt that it was a little slow and it was uncomfortable. Though we were in the universe of Star Wars, it was different. The galaxy had aged 30 years, the Empire is resurrected in a new form as the First Order, and we aren’t sure what has happened to the Rebellion. The war that we thought was over is far from over and the Resistance, surprisingly I thought, is still a small faction (albeit more organized) trying to overthrow a large government.

General Notes – Spoiler Territory Ahead

The strengths of this movie pulled from the Original Trilogy with its humorous quips and little touches that devout Star Wars fans would notice (there were definitely some EU shout outs as well). The humor mostly came when Han was on screen, so I’d like to see how they are going to keep the humor going now that he’s dead. I’m guessing Poe since he had that bad boy funny streak. The format was like A New Hope in that we followed BB-8 on this journey, similar to how we followed R2-D2 and C-3PO previously. I loved BB-8 and I understand why everyone fell in love with Artoo when Star Wars first came out. I want my own BB-8 droid.

The Falcon appeared early in the movie and was the main mode of transportation, but man oh man, does it get beat up. I cringed every time it hit the sand, but it kind of brought a realness to the situation that I appreciated.

I did not notice the soundtrack as much as I thought I would. I feel like all the other Star Wars movies had distinct themes that you could go return to and love. Duel of the Fates, Imperial March, Luke and Leia, Battle of the Heroes, etc. I didn’t notice anything in The Force Awakens that had me rooting for a new tune.

Once everything was established, and we knew and understood the new characters Finn and Rey, the story began to take off. The last 1/3 of the movie was Star Wars fun, with a big space complex to destroy (round per usual, but this time in the form of a Death Star converted to a large planet), a lightsaber fight, and some loss of beloved heroes.

In typical Star Wars fashion, there were some plot points that were nicely glossed over that left me scratching my head. Such as:

Where did they get Luke/Anakin’s lightsaber? Maz Kanata smoothed that over and basically said it was “a story for another time.”

Why was the lightsaber “crying” and Rey heard it? Is this part of the Force? Why did it give her all those images?

I would have liked to know more about the Republic that was destroyed by Starkiller Base. It sounds like it was established at the end of ROTJ, but was it an actual governing force in the galaxy? Is the First Order still the reigning government, or was it similar to a civil war or the Prequel Trilogy with the Separatists and the Republic? But this time the Republic is the smaller group and the First Order is the larger?

R2-D2 basically shutting down didn’t make sense. It was a neatly thrown in plot point and then he conveniently “woke up” at the end to help the Resistance find Luke…huh?

Characters

I loved Rey. Rey was my favorite character, no question about it. They didn’t try to make her a forced “strong female protagonist” as most of Hollywood seems to be trying to do right now. They made her relatable, a real human being where you understood her actions and the consequences. She could be male or female, which is what I loved. There was no push on the romance and even now, I can’t figure out if her and Finn are going to become an “item” or if they are just friends who’ve been through a lot. I want to know more about her history. I’m guessing her parents were taken from her? But who was dragging her away? Is she somehow related to the Skywalkers?

Mr. Reticent noted that he thought her being captured by Kylo Ren was a “damsel in distress” situation, but I highly disagree. It made sense with her character. It allowed her to battle Kylo in the Force, come out victorious, and feel the Force awaken within her. If they captured Han, it would be a little pointless. If they captured Finn, there would be so much hullabaloo with him being a previous stormtrooper that there would be too much First Order protocol involved.

I thought Han was still Han, though I did feel like the movie was staged for his death a little too much (who called that?). I liked his quips, his camaraderie with Chewie was still the same, and I thought it made sense that he was separated from Leia due to their son going to the dark side. We couldn’t have Han and Leia madly in love because his death would be that much harder. Abrams and the writers wanted to separate the audience from Han, to not make it *that* hard on us when he died. Though I didn’t cry when he died, totally expecting it, I did get teary eyed when Rey came off the Falcon and had that moment with Leia.

Though the driving force of the movie was Luke Skywalker, it was frustrating how little they spent on where he had been in the past 30 years. I know he disappeared due to the failure of his training and starting a New Jedi Order, but it was rushed. It seems a little out of character for the Luke we know…wouldn’t he have at least stayed in touch with his sister and Han? I hope we find out much, much more of his backstory in the upcoming films. When I saw the last shot, I honestly thought, “Oh darn, the movie was just starting to get good.”

Finally, Kylo Ren. Or, Ben Solo (interesting EU nod). I went back and forth throughout the movie on whether or not I liked him. On the one hand, he was not nearly as imposing or intimidating as I’d expect someone on the dark side of the Force to be. On the other hand, I loved the character struggles he seemed to go through. It added more layers to a dark side character that we’ve only really seen in Return of the Jedi. Knowing Kylo was once good and even admits that he’s struggling when it came to his father was an interesting twist for Star Wars. Vader never admitted he struggled with the light side. I’m confused as to why he wore the mask, other than to emulate Darth Vader and his obsession with him. Funnily, and I’m not sure if Abrams meant this, but the tantrums Kylo Ren threw were so much like Anakin that I wanted to pat him on the back and tell him he’s more like Anakin than he knows. I loved Adam Driver’s acting when it came to that moment when he killed his father. I felt there was a real struggle within him, but when he made his decision, you could see this slight change in his face and oh, it was so perfect. By the end of the movie, I wish we had more of Kylo and I’m interested to see where he will go in his training with Snoke.

Supreme Leader Snoke. Where do I begin? This was my one major gripe with the movie. I thought he was a horrible addition. It looks like he jumped straight out of a Tolkien novel/movie, with some zombie thrown in. I can’t figure out if it was because he was so large or because of his species (whatever he is), but I thought he wasn’t believable. Every time he came on the screen, the movie felt disjointed and took a step back, instead of forward. I am curious as to whether it’s because he was so large, which made me think he just looked stupid. When we see him in future movies, I hope that he is a normal height and not a hologram. I wanted to see more of Kylo Ren and less of Snoke throughout the movie.

General Hux was like he came straight out of an EU novel: a typical Imperial General. What I liked most about him was that he seemed to be an equal to Kylo and had no problems calling him out, another difference from the Empire in the Original Trilogy, where everyone was terrified of Vader (shhh…don’t tell Kylo that). Captain Phasma didn’t have as large of a role as I was hoping, but I appreciate the shout out to female stormtroopers and the fact, again, that Phasma could have been male or female. Maz Kanata was a nice replacement for Yoda/wise mage, but I’d like to see more of her. I hope she continues to pop up throughout the new sequels, but is a true guiding force. General Leia was not given as much screen time as I would have hoped. She was the same, yet different, but they didn’t explore it much. She had more of a cameo role than an actual part. Poe Dameron was interesting and I hope we see more of him in the future. I think he will be a really strong character, but more please. More of Poe in the next movie.

I believe it took a while for the movie to establish itself, but once the foundation was built, it took my breath away. Abrams did a great job clearly defining that the baton was being passed onto a new generation, which was one of my highest hopes. I did not want a movie that only focused on Han, Leia, and Luke again – and this did not disappoint.

The only parts where it fell short for me was the lack of the mystical in the Force and Snoke. I felt that the Force has always been such an important factor for Star Wars and guides all the movies, so to say, but it wasn’t strong within this movie. I think we’ll see more of it coming up in the sequels and I certainly hope so.

Overall, I give The Force Awakens a solid B+/A-. I’m seeing it again tonight so will hopefully have a better understanding and opinion of it once done.

Oh, I definitely felt some similarities to his ST works, but not the whole thing. Especially when Starkiller base destroyed all those planets…the shots and everything were almost lifted from Star Trek (I think that was the first one he did?). Did you feel a lot of ST?

Glad you enjoyed it. I personally wish that I had, but I was really, really disappointed in it.

Story was a direct knockoff of Episode IV A New Hope.

I have no idea who the hell the Republic, the Resistance, and The First Order are, other than just the names.

The new characters disappointed me immensely. Fin is a stormrtrooper who doesn’t want to kill civilians but happily guns down his former stormtrooper comrades? Rey is a struggling orphan? who exhibits Force abilities that no one can use unless they are trained, but she instantaneously is able to use them at will and is a skilled lightsaber duelist to boot? Kylo Ren’s identity is revealed early, his mask is basically forgotten by the end, and even though he has the power to stop a blaster bolt in mid-air at the beginning of the movie, he is getting his butt handed to him by Rey by the end of the movie? And I totally agree about Supreme Leader Snoke – he is a cross between Voldemort and the Imperious Leader from 1970s Battlestar Galactica.

The death of a beloved character was so obvious that there was no suspense, and the actual death scene was fairly meh, which is unforgivable to send someone out that way.

I could go on, but my opinion isn’t really important, because I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan and will continue to be regardless of one movie. My three teenage sons and their friends are not die-hard fans ,however, but theya re the future of the franchise, and when they started chanting “Star Wars Suck!” as we left the theater and other viewers took up the chant I immediately felt a tremor in the Force and foresaw bad times coming for SW if Disney doesn’t stop treating it like a cash cow.

I guess the reason why I wasn’t surprised about the ANH similarities is because I had drawn the conclusion for myself a long time ago. I knew Abrams was pretty much going to go back to the OT, especially ANH, so I was long prepared for that so it didn’t shock me so much.

I didn’t mind the new characters! I think Finn’s sudden turn was a little shaky, but I think I blame it on the fact that he seemed to always want to know who his family was and his first assignment was to kill an entire village of families…that’s pretty tough. So clearly the First Order hadn’t beaten it out of him.

Rey’s quick Force abilities were surprising but you have to remember that they only have a limited amount of time within a movie, so I gave them a little leeway there. However, to your point, they could have expanded upon it from the very beginning – kind of like Harry Potter always had wizard abilities but couldn’t explain the strange things that he did.

I think some of the reason Kylo got his butt handed to him is because he was really badly wounded. I loved that he kept hitting his side, either physically trying to make himself stop bleed or also trying to use the Force to help him stop bleeding. Either way, he got badly wounded by Chewie’s bolt, had semi-fought Finn right before, Force pushed Rey into a tree, and then had to fight someone like Rey who had just awakened to her Force abilities. I think it’s explainable he’s a little weak. This is no Anakin Skywalker – the strongest person in the Force that we know of. I feel like people expect too much of Kylo Ren…he is a Force user, does have Skywalker blood in him, but it has been diluted. On top of that, it sounds like his training in the dark side of the Force is not close to complete. A little like Obi-Wan fighting Darth Maul in TPM, plus being badly wounded.

I’m sorry though that at the end you didn’t have a good experience. I’m still stuck on my B+/A- and can’t decide which it should be. I’m hoping tonight will give me a better feel for it.

Good luck with it. In a few months we will see where most people come down. I’d anticipate the majority will love this movie just because it is Star Wars. Disney really needs to make the next movie less of a rehash of older SW movies and more originally to keep people interested however, but I’m afraid we are just going to have a rehash of Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (similar to the second Star Trek movie). Hope I’m wrong though.

re: your head-scratchers:
* totally agree on the lightsaber. That was just “we need the lightsaber for our story now, so here it is — explanation be damned.”
* I saw the scene with Rey and the lightsaber as a parallel to Luke’s visit to the cave on Dagobah — but I saw the difference as Luke’s vision showing him the Dark Side, and Rey’s showing her the Light. I saw the visions as coming from the Force, and not from the lightsaber; the visions just led her to the box.
* The First Order did not seem to be the reigning government; it felt purely like a military force. In that regard, “The Resistance” didn’t seem like a good name for the Resistance, because it definitely felt like if there was an anti-establishment threat, it was the First Order.
* Starkiller Base as a concept felt super lazy to me. At some point “oh, look, now we have an even *bigger* Death Star” just becomes cliché (and, really, that point was reached in this movie). Honestly, they can’t come up with new ideas for super weapons? I did like that they showed some sense of the history of Star Wars by going with the “Starkiller” name, but having it be an *actual killer of stars* also felt kindof ham-fisted.

My head-scratchers:
* The very idea that Luke Skywalker went into hiding and yet left a map to where he was going – which was basically a straight line – seemed preposterous. It felt like the Red Matter in Abrams’ first Star Trek film in that your immediate reaction is “Yeah, right, what the hell is that?”
* I cannot imagine any situation where it makes sense that Poe immediately trusted Finn so much that Poe would logically say “Hey, I just met you, but let me just go ahead and share with you one of the biggest secrets in the galaxy.” I understand that it seemed necessary in order to facilitate Finn’s meeting with Rey and BB-8, but wow, it just made no sense whatsoever.
* They went way overboard with the fan service. Rey lives in an AT-AT! Cool! Look, Finn just tossed aside Luke’s Jedi training remote, which, impossibly, is still inside a thrice-stolen Millennium Falcon, 30 years later! Oh, cool, the Dejarik table! Save for *maybe* the AT-AT, which at least made sense in the context of the junk left behind on Jakku, these things were all pointless distractions from the actual movie.

Moving on…

Rey is fantastic. I don’t have anything to add to what you said about her, other than what I liked the most about her character is that zero times during the movie did she need to be rescued by *anyone*.

I am completely on board with Kylo Ren. Completely. I’m *thrilled* that Abrams didn’t kill him off and that we’re going to see him again. He’s the conflict between the Dark and the Light that we never saw well enough in the prequels –– and that’s simply because Adam Driver sold it to a level that Hayden Christiansen just couldn’t/didn’t/whatever. And Ren’s control over the Force was *fantastic* — when he froze Poe *and his blaster bolt* in place on Jakku, I let out an audible “oh, holy shit.” This made Rey’s victory over him so much more enthralling, because Ren is genuinely powerful — and he uses the Dark Side in ways we’ve never seen before. He’s fantastic.

Snoke was off in many ways; I pretty much agree with everything you said, with the addition of “in the pantheon of stupid-sounding Star Wars names, we may have a new champion.” The size of the hologram seemed fine to me; Snoke in the flesh (or whatever) is likely very small and frail, and he needs the Wizard of Oz effect to project his power. That worked for me. Not much else did. I’m curious to learn more about the character — a lot of my friends think he’ll end up being Darth Plagueis, but I am wondering if it’s not actually Palpatine.

I thought General Hux was a terrible character and probably the worst thing about the film. He felt entirely miscast to me — I just never bought into him, and his Nurnberg Rally speech should’ve been rewritten several times over. It was awful. It seemed like they were going for “young Tarkin” when they should’ve just gone with Tarkin. I just really felt that character should’ve been older and significantly reigned in — the Empire has never had to yell and scream and slobber to project its strength, and going that direction with Hux was a mistake.

Completely agree on the need for more Phasma. Maz was a great character, and her conversation with Rey after she finds the box was one of the highlights of the movie for me. So good. Her talking about the Force as a mystical energy that flows through all things really got to me also — I was *desperately* hoping that these movies would move the Force back into mysticism and away from “it’s just some shit in your blood”, and I was thrilled that they did it. I also agree that we need to see much more Poe Dameron in the future.

I have my complaints and head-scratchers, but overall I felt that it was a fantastic movie. I went twice in a row last night and the experience wasn’t diminished. It’s so good. If you buy into the hierarchy of the original trilogy as Empire > Star Wars > Jedi, then I put Force Awakens solidly third — and trending far closer to second than to fourth.

A lot of people are saying Rey’s vision was a parallel to the cave scene in Dagobah…but that scene was way more fleshed out with Yoda telling Luke not to bring his weapons and he only brings in what he takes with him (ie. fear). Rey’s scene was random so it confused me and seemed out of place.

Good point about the First Order being more of a resistance than the actual Resistance. Someone more knowledgeable than I explained the background of the Republic and where it stands now, but I really wish they gave us some more context in the film! JJ was SO obsessed on not making it like the PT and bogging it down with politics that he bypassed it entirely.

Starkiller actually happened to be one of the few spoilers I had read by mistake so I definitely knew about it so was more prepared. I didn’t like the idea when I found out about it – but I did like that it was built into a planet. I thought that was interesting. But completely agree that it’s time for something new, PLEASE. The blowing up of it was lackluster for me and uninteresting because by this time, it was the 4th time we’ve been through it.

Luke’s map – I see your other comment that it was the map to the first Jedi Temple. So, I don’t get it still. All those lines were just leading to the Jedi Temple and that’s actually the island where Luke was? Yeah, that wasn’t clear at all. I thought it was Luke’s track as well. It does look like there are stops along the way though on different planets which is why I’m still baffled.

My main problem with Poe was that he disappeared for a good portion of the movie, then showed up and was like “hey I’m just fine!” What?? Yeah he did trust Finn right away but maybe he figured if they got separated or he died, it would be worth it?

I actually didn’t mind the fan service. I only think it’s because it’s the new star wars movie that they did that, I don’t think it’ll be as prevalent going forward.

OMG the blaster bolt that Ren stopped! That was SO awesome.

I’ve heard this Darth Plagueis/Snoke theory all over the place since yesterday. I feel like that would diminish Palpatine’s power by having him be Plagueis since Palpatine out bested him and actually killed him. But then you can go on the other side and say since Plagueis figured out how to live on past death, maybe Snoke really is him. And, yes, horrible stupid name.

I’m not sure where this movie falls yet in the scheme of most favorite to least favorite. I have to let it set in longer and probably watch it on DVD a few times before making a decision. It’s still too new for me.

I actually have a new theory about Artoo – all I’ve been thinking about was how dumb that he all of a sudden “woke up” at the right moment, etc. But when Rey has her vision and sees Luke touching Artoo, the camera zooms up close to Artoo. Perhaps Luke was actually fiddling or giving Artoo some kind of mission to only be ready when the time was right…perhaps when Rey came to the Resistance base? Think about it, Rey was on Starkiller Base when everyone else was there preparing for the attack, so perhaps the timing of Artoo is not coincidental at all but was waiting for Rey.

I saw it a third time tonight and I understand the map now — it’s not actually a “Map to Luke Skywalker,” but a map showing the location of the first Jedi Temple, where people believe Luke is hiding. That makes *so* much more sense, and I’m not sure why they didn’t present it that way.

I literally only noticed the music once, during the Han/Leia reunion, which was the callback to the ESB love theme. I fact that I didn’t notice anything about it at all is actually disappointing.

I was not crazy about the First Order at all. I don’t understand the state of politics in the universe. Snoke makes no sense, and I think they should have waited to bring in a Big Bad (the Emperor wasn’t seen until ESB after all). I found the whole concept of Starkiller base and the final battle dumb (maybe Darksaber-level bad, haha). The scene with Hux’s speech was way too heavy-handed. Kylo Ren had some good characterization, though, and I do want to see more of Phasma.

I think most of my issues are “big picture” concept kinds of things. The actual execution was quite good in all aspects: acting, props, dialogue, camera work, etc. The fanservice may get tedious on repeat viewings, but it was pretty magical in the theater.

I love Rey! The Jaina parallels are uncanny 🙂 They are clearly teasing something for her backstory, will be interesting to see what exactly. Poe was great, I wish he had been in it more consistently. I think Finn had a kind of personality we haven’t really seen in Star Wars before, it felt fresh and different. I was actually more upset when I thought he had died than when Han did.

I noticed more of the music the 2nd time around. No huge themes that blow me away, but I did like (what I believe is) Rey’s theme a lot.

Yeah, agree with the state of the politics in the universe. I just said in an above comment – JJ was SO obsessed on not making it like the PT and bogging it down with politics that he bypassed it entirely. And I feel like most of us were just like, huh? I know a big question going around is also if that was Coruscant they blew up. I’d like to think that no it wasn’t because in my second viewing, it didn’t look as crowded as Coruscant. I would be sad to see Coruscant leave the galaxy too since it really has sparked so much of my imagination since the PT came out.

Agree with leaving Snoke out. I actually thought about that later – that we didn’t see the Emperor in ANH and so I don’t think we needed Snoke here at all. It always took me out of the movie instead of letting it flow.

The more I think about Kylo Ren and when I saw it a second time, I’m liking him more and more and think there could be a lot of potential with his character. If Phasma returns, I hope they utilize her more than just, “hey we have a female stormtrooper!”

I was surprisingly very neutral on Finn. I neither liked nor disliked him. I thought Boyega did a great job with him, I just didn’t feel anything for him either way.

I also just posted a new theory/thought I had after watching it a second time on Artoo – let me know if you think I’m way off here: when Rey has her vision and sees Luke touching Artoo, the camera zooms up close to Artoo. Perhaps Luke was actually fiddling with the Force or giving Artoo some kind of mission to only be ready when the time was right…perhaps when Rey came to the Resistance base? Think about it, Rey was on Starkiller Base when everyone else was there preparing for the attack, so perhaps the timing of Artoo is not coincidental at all but was waiting for Rey.

Oooh I like your theory. I was also wondering about the timing of Artoo waking, I did think perhaps that Luke had programmed him somehow. But I hadn’t thought that the image in the vision might be a clue to that.

saw it this afternoon. Will read all the comments and give a longer response but for now I just want to say about Rey being captured in a damsel in distress moment…Poe was also captured. Capturing is a basic staple/plot device in the Star Wars universe. Notice they didn’t kill off Captain Phasma which means they learned something from Darth Maul

I enjoyed the film as much as anyone else. I was kinda annoyed with the death star…i mean sun killer segment. I mean how does a base that big with that many storm troopers have so many empty corridors for Rae to sneak around unnoticed.

The Politics — as you’ve sad before Star Wars is for children, first and foremost. Therefore it probably is the best option not to create a plausible political structure of what the galactic government landscape is post-empire since its just going to be backdrop anyway.

Light Sabers — I’m so pleased they figured out a way to hurt wound people without actually severing a hand or arm. In another thread we are debating whether you have to be a jedi to use a LS. The answer i believe is not at all, it just helps.

The Force — in the prequels it seemed like the force was so powerful it turned jedis in to god like wizards. I’m glad to see it scaled back a bit.

Who is Rae — Perhaps Luke’s daughter. I really hope they don’t make her the sister of Kylo. when Han and Leia talk about their son they don’t mention other children and as a parent of twins I got to tell you, that isn’t natural.

They could have shown her to be more Force-adept, perhaps when she is scavenging she could drop a tool or part and use the force to lift it back.

Finn — could be a relative of Lando or Windu or just a random newbie.

Observations — in the beginning, Poe shots Kylo Ren from a far and Kylo captures the shot. At the end of the movie, Chewbacca shots Kylo from a far and nails him. Probably because he’s distracted by having killed his father.

In ANH Luke watches Ben sacrifice his life. In TFA Rea sees Han do pretty much the same thing. So I like the symmetry especially since in the OS, you have Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbecca. In this one we have Rea, Poe, Finn and Chewbacca.

I liked what i did see of Poe. He doesn’t strike me as a Han reboot but instead as a seasoned warrior who wants to be where the action is. He was on an important mission at the start of the film and he was part of the battle of planet ice at the end.

Unanswered questions: Why does C3Po have a red arm? Was that Wedge Antilles in the X-wing? And who was the old man who was killed in the beginning?

LOL good point on Starkiller base…but I just shrug that off as typical Star Wars. It IS a movie after all and in the OT the stormtroopers happened to almost never hit our blasters, so Rey being able to sneak around without being caught is probably in a similar vein.

I agree that Star Wars is first and foremost for children, but it could be changing. For instance, this movie was rated PG-13 not PG, and the difference with ANH and this one is that ANH was the first ever, so it had the ability to drop us into the middle without explaining anything and getting away with it. TFA has a lot of history in Star Wars now. It also didn’t make much sense. How is there a Resistance with the Republic? Wouldn’t there be no need for a Resistance if the status quo is the Republic?

General Grievous used lightsabers quite well and was not a Jedi, so there’s that answer. No, you don’t have to be a Jedi.

A lot of people think Rey is Luke’s daughter but I’m on the fence. I thought that last shot with Luke looked like he recognized her, but I’m not sure.

My answers to the best of my ability to your questions:
-I think Threepio had a red arm for the same reason he had a silver leg. Just because he’s a mish mash of pieces sometimes.
-That was not Wedge Antilles…the actor Dennis Lawson did not want to be part of the new Star Wars, claiming he had “moved on”.
-I read up on the old man and here’s some more info: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lor_San_Tekka or http://www.starwars.com/databank/lor-san-tekka

While more context would be great, there was so much story to go through that the movie needed the slick, fast pace. I found this refreshing after the Prequel trilogies because the characters are all filled out.
I would like to see more of Captain Phasma – for having such cool armor, and a cool actress, she was underutilized – but, then, Boba Fett was only in a total of about 10 minutes of Episodes 5 and 6.
Snoke didn’t fit. I think he pulled the darkness of Voldemort, Gollum, and cave trolls together into an odd cg-character who doesn’t quite fit.
As for politics, ANH doesn’t have a lot of politics. We just know there’s a rebellion and an empire, and the rebellion are getting trashed. We don’t need to know the ins and outs of politics. A bit more context might work, but such things do not make good action movies.
And, I have to say – Star Wars was not made for children. Everyone says that as an excuse for the Prequels, but Star Wars was not made for children. It was made as a sci-fi/adventure action film for anyone who happens to like explosions, adventure, and space. Calling Star Wars made for children minimizes the depth of character and world-building which are in the original trilogy.
Tonight, I’ll end with this – Rey is awesome, and I really, really want her to be the child of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. I don’t think this will happen, but that would be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome.

I’m glad you love Rey too! I can’t get enough of her. This weekend my husband gave up on installing these shelves and I was frustrated. Then I thought to myself, “If Rey can do it, I can do it.” Because I just *knew* Rey would be able to figure something like that out. And I did it! Something where I would have probably threw my hands up before thinking, “Well, if he can’t do it, I certainly don’t know how to use all those tools,” was thrown to the wind. Wonderful.

Yeah, seems like a lot of people didn’t like Snoke. He was way too CGI and stupid. The people of Utapau looked funny/interesting, but it worked because they were clearly aliens. Snoke had a stupid name and stupid face and stupid role.

My whole issue with the politics is that I didn’t think you really needed the Resistance if you have the Republic. It seemed a little counter intuitive. I think they were looking at the Resistance as a branch of the Republic but if that’s the case, then I do think they needed a little more formation of an explanation. Because when you look at something like ANH (to your argument), there was the Empire and the Rebellion. That’s it. The old democracy had been “swept away” when the senate was dissolved, leaving 2 opposing forces. It seems to me that the “Resistance” was more in the form of the First Order, which left me with my head scratching. I couldn’t figure out if the Republic was the current government or not. The Resistance certainly wasn’t.

I don’t think I’d mind if Rey was Luke’s daughter…as long as it fit in well and made sense.

I thought that at first. But I can’t blame Leia. Even if she hadn’t said that, I think Han still would have confronted his son. Or maybe he wouldn’t have. He seemed convinced that his son was lost forever until Leia changed his mind. Maybe I can blame Leia after all.